Gym floors are not always very sanitary places. They typically teem with bacteria, some of which are merely smelly, and some of which are more dangerous (such as MRSA). A person doing yoga has to spread their mat on this dirty floor. When the yoga session is over, the exerciser typically rolls up their mat; because of the way yoga mats typically roll up, the “dirty” side that touched the floor ends up in direct contact with the “clean” side that the person was on. This means that the whole mat is now “dirty” and covered in nasty bacteria.
One way to deal with the problem, of course, is to wash the mat after each practice; however, this is hard to commit to on a regular basis. Some folding yoga mats exist; however, they typically do not isolate the “dirty” side adequately. Also, a folded yoga mat does not have the same shape as a rolled-up yoga mat and thus does not fit into the same bags or receptacles.
Another prior-art invention, U.S. Pub. No. 2013/0042408, comprises a regular yoga mat with a guideline for folding the yoga mat in the middle, and then rolling up the folded yoga mat. This way, the “dirty” side of the yoga mat only touches the “dirty” side when the mat is folded. The problem with that invention is that folding a yoga mat in this way means that there will be a “bump” in the middle of the mat when it is unrolled, due to the stress that the folding places on the mat. Also, the repeated folding and unfolding may damage the material of the mat in the long term. Finally, it is difficult to fold the mat precisely when there is no tactile guideline for how to fold it appropriately prior to rolling it up.
A need exists for a fold-and-roll mat that is easier to fold in exactly the right place for the edges to line up precisely when it is rolled up, and that does not have a “bump” in the middle or risk damaging the material of the mat.